Man bites dog
So, have I got this right, this is a Trump did a sensible thing story?
President Donald Trump has nominated former FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to rejoin the US federal telecom regulator, filling a seat made empty by... herself. There are actually two empty seats on the five-person FCC board – one Democrat and one Republican – but uncharacteristically, Trump did not announce a Republican …
So, have I got this right, this is a Trump did a sensible thing story?
It would appear so. Perhaps we should not be entirely surprised - statistically a "sensible thing" is bound to emerge from time to time, much like a large enough number of monkeys with typewriters* eventually producing the works of Shakespeare.
Chaos Theory might also have something to say on the subject as well.
* Should also be valid for PCs and laptops. Dunno about tablets...
From what I gather, a tepid defender of net neut was nominated to take the place of a more radical one. A remaining seat is still to be attributed; this will be done shortly, and it will probably go to a rabid anti-net-neut advocate, thus considerably shifting the balance towards anti-net-neuts, while giving a superficial impression of non-partisanship. The delay between nominations is designed to prevent direct comparisons. Classic political manoeuvre.
Trump isn't completely daft and it would seem that he is discovering that running an entire country is not the same as running a business. Apart from anything else there are those pesky rules that are designed to keep madmen in check - even if they are the *ahem* leader of the free world.
When he stops tweeting shit, we'll know we have a president that you can do business with. You may not like his policies but he will finally become a man of the city (politician) and that is someone that you can work with. The odd, orange, tweeting plonker will eventually buckle down.
No-one is bigger than demos kratos, not even POTUS.
god help France with it's new parliamentarians.
It's reported that some 400+ out of 570 MP's are forecast to be "new at this", possibly including one candidate who has a criminal conviction for hate speech, (not Le Pen) so should be interesting times.
I often wonder if a "Common Sense" party could earn a landslide victory in UK elections. (Obviously, excluding Sturgeon). Then again, would it appeal to the "youth" vote?
Sounds a bit fishy to me.
US politics continues to baffle me.
On the one hand you have the "Everyone con-gressperson-for-themself" where it seems to be impossible to get consensus to (for want of a better phrase) "Just f**king get on with it" then you have absolute fault line along party lines of that completely blocks on other issues (taxes and healthcare?)
And the biggest one of all.
Trump is a Republican. The Republicans have majorities in both houses.
How can bills and even a budget still not get passed?
"Trump is a Republican. The Republicans have majorities in both houses.
How can bills and even a budget still not get passed?"
@John Smith 19
I imagine for the same reason that the Conservative party always has problems about Europe. Both parties are really coalitions of people with diverse and sometimes contradictory views on policy. The Labour party is also a coalition but the cogwheels and pulleys are easier to see.
As a Brit, I found Robert Caro's The Power Broker a very useful guide to how stuff works in the US, specifically New York's planning processes. Views from actual US citizens welcome.
Coat: off out now, not my circus and not my monkeys.
In the Senate 52 of 100 Senators are Republican
In the Congress 239 of 435 are Republican. 3 seats vacant.
Granted 2 is a wafer thin majority in the Senate by UK standards but I think this is close to SOP and both parties have ways to manage this.
Even if the 3 vacant seats go Democrat that would still leave 196 seat majority.
This would seem more than enough to pass whatever legislation the Republicans want.
Yet they still give the impression of being in disarray.
I thought US politicians were virtually elected for life?
Either you wait for one to die or you have to challenge them to the parties nomination (or something), or get the nomination from the other party and wait for the next election to take a (probably unsuccessful) crack at them.